


The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing

by redflowersinthewind282



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ballroom Dancing, Dancing, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo is bit of a dick, Rey had a bad childhood, Romance, Shall We Dance AU, Strained Relationships, Strangers to Lovers, author does not know anything about dance, most of the implied tags are on Rey's past, not too much angst I hope?, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 09:56:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14422929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redflowersinthewind282/pseuds/redflowersinthewind282
Summary: Rey Niima has what you could call a life, she gets up every morning, goes to school, goes to work for her horrible boss Teedo and comes home every night on the L train, her social life is consists of hanging out with her roommates/best friends Finn and Rose and binge watching Netflix but besides that work, school and sleep are all she does. One day Rey looks up and sees a man whose face is expressing exactly what she feels inside, wanting to understand him she signs up for beginners Ballroom Dance lessons taught at the once renowned Maz Kanata Dance Studio and is swept away by her new found love of dance, her bubbly enthusiasm for something he had started to hate and her raw talent don't go unnoticed by the disgraced former ballroom dancer Kylo Ren.Inspired by the movie "Shall We Dance" (2004)





	The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this is my first story I've published on these kinds of websites since I was like 12 so I'm kinda new at this whole thing! I'm not really sure how any of this stuff works so fingers crossed I got it right the first time! Anyways, I'm in school rn so I'm not sure how frequent the updates are gonna be and my muse is kinda flakey so theres that too but hopefully this can change since I'm actually sharing my work with you guys! I have the whole thing outlined for the events in each chapter so that should help. Also sorry for any grammar mistakes and such, I don't have a beta and I suck at point out grammatical flaws. Anyways lets get on with the story!

There was something missing in Rey’s life. She couldn’t really put her finger on what it exactly was but it had become more obvious to her in the past few days that she was missing out on something.

“Are you okay Rey?” Her best friend Finn asked when she came home one evening. Rey had to do a double take as she put her coat on the coat hanger by the door of their fourth floor walk up.

“Course I am, what makes you say that?” Rey’s eyebrows had knitted together as she dumped her backpack on the dinner table and sat down on the overstuffed chair Rose and Rey had found between a garbage bin and a thrift store.

“I don’t know, you just seem sad or something lately.” Finn grabbed the remote and turned down the volume of whatever Netflix show he had gotten caught up in. “You just aren’t doing much, you go to school, go to work and come home. Rose can’t even remember the last time you went out with her.”

“I went out for a coffee with her last week.” Rey huffed as she tucked her legs under her

“Yeah, it was to-go and you came back here to drink it.” Finn sighed as he turned to look at her. “Look I’m not trying to accuse you or anything, but it just seems like there’s a piece of you missing. For all I know I could be wrong.”

Finn waited for Rey to respond, Rey was busy mulling what he said over her mind, eventually Finn turned his attention back to the TV.

Rey spent the last few days thinking about that exchange between her and Finn. Rey’s daily routine for the past few months had mostly consisted of her waking up, going to class then work and coming back home and doing her classwork. Rey had gotten into Yavin University on a scholarship and had to be a full time student but unfortunately the scholarship didn’t cover anything beyond her classes and textbooks. She worked as often as she could to cover her third of the rent, she typically worked 25-29 hours per week, Teedo was insistent that she work part time since she was “just a kid”.

The thought of her asshole boss made Rey snarl, as she browsed the memes Finn had tagged her in on Facebook while she was in class, she was thankfully to be on her way home and not have to work, Tuesdays and Wednesdays were her sanctuary days. She could go home, curl up in bed with some take away and watch some old movies, occasionally Finn or Rose would join her but Rey preferred to just be alone. Still between work and school what else could she do? Besides Finn and Rose she didn’t really have any friends, and Rose had come with Finn when the two of them started dating the summer after freshman year at Yavin. So she couldn’t really hang out with anyone. She didn’t have any social hobbies, she liked watching old movies, listening to music and trying to improve her skills as a cook but Finn still reigned supreme in that arena.

Rey sighed as she put her phone away in her pocket, having run out of Finn’s memes, she shifted in her seat on the L. Next item that the City Council should get too should be the state of these seats, Rey thought as she ran her hand over the banged up yellow plastic of her seat. Rey adjusted her head on the window as she looked out to see the yellow lights of the building parallel to her. It wasn’t like Rey was trying to isolate herself, she would try to make friends in her classes but eventually the quarter would end and the promises of “I’ll text you!” or “I’ll friend you on Facebook!” would be hollow ones.

Rey stared blankly at a brick building as the train stopped, adjusting her gaze Rey looked up and was startled by man staring at her from one of windows of the building. Rey moved slightly out of the way but the mans gaze didn’t falter from the spot he was staring at. Rey’s eyebrows knitted together as she tried to figure out what the man was staring at. The buildings tacky lights that spelled out “Maz Kanata’s Dance Studio” illuminated his face making him seem paler than he probably was, his pitch black hair seemed to have a luminous glow due to the lights as well, Rey wasn’t exactly sure how anyone could describe his face, it seemed to be empty of any emotion, but it wasn’t just blank.

It was the distinct lack of something that made Rey’s own heart lurch in response to seeing this persons face. Rey realized that he wasn’t staring at someone or something in particular, why was he looking out the window then? Rey desperately searched his face as if it would hold some more clues for why. Rey could feel her heart tightening in her chest as she stared at him longer, then in one instant his face seemed to change, as if he suddenly realized that Rey was staring at him and his dark eyes locked on hers and it was like her own heart had forgotten that it was supposed to beat.

But before Rey could even process her own bodies response to the man’s face the train began moving again, Rey turned as she watch the man passing her, his gaze never waivered from whatever he was staring at. Rey breathed deeply as she turned her attention to map on the wall of the train in front of her. Maybe she was just tired, and she had been studying for an upcoming test in Professor Dameron’s class. That’s definitely it; Rey thought to herself, she was just tired.

* * *

 

When Rey got home from class, she groaned as she slipped off her trainers and threw her patched up bomber jacket on the coat hanger.

“Bad day?” Rose called from the kitchen, Rey distinctly heard the sound of the freezer opening and closing and pleads silently that Rose grabbed two spoons for the tub of chocolate ice cream they decided to buy a few days ago. Rey and Rose had already eaten half of it; Finn had barely been able to make a dent before the girls claimed it for their own.

“Not bad, just tired.” Rey padded her way to the sofa where Finn was sitting; Rey took the seat on the other side so Rose could have the middle. “I think my theory of Professor Dameron being a masochist is probably true.”

“You mean sadist, peanut, masochist is the one that enjoys the pain inflicted on them.” Finn smiled

“Ugh, I’m too tired to think.” Rey rolled her head back as she put her feet up on the coffee table. Rose softly kicked Rey’s legs as she waited for Rey to lower them so she could sit between her friend and her boyfriend. Rey groaned as she put her legs back on the coffee table, Rose nudged her and hand her a spoon for the chocolate ice cream. “Yes, thank you Rose!”

“So Rey, Rose and I were talking…” Finn said slowly as Rey took a big scoop of ice cream into her mouth.

“About what?” Rey tried to say as the cold and creamy substance melted its way down her throat.

“There’s this guy in our lit class, Snap-“

“Snap?” Rey snorted as she struggled to swallow the last bit of ice cream she had just eaten, her nostrils burned from the ice cream almost coming back up and shooting out of them “Is that like a nickname or is that his actual name?”

“A nickname.” Rose clarified as she took the remote from the coffee table and started browsing different channels

“Anyways, we told him about you and he seems really interested in meeting you.” Finn continued

“Wait, are you two trying to set me up on a blind date?” Rey asked as she stuck her spoon into the ice cream

“He is, I’m not.” Rose shook her head as she settled onto an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

“Look we’re just trying to get you to meet some new people, you only hang out with the two of us and no, your boss, co-workers and your study group do not count as hanging out.” Finn explained, Rey leaned further into the couch; maybe if she sunk down further Finn would end the conversation.

“I’m just not a people person.” Rey said softly as she felt the heat on her cheeks grow redder.

“That’s not true, freshman year you led every activity in the dorm, you’re a total extravert.” Rose countered, “You would literally light up every time we met new people.”

“I wasn’t as tired then as I am now.” Rey sighed “I’m just so burned out, I’m not even sure if I could handle having more than you two as my friends. I’m just so busy all the time and any time I have that I’m not working or studying I just want to use for myself.”

“Okay, Rey.” Rose said as she put her hand on Rey’s knee, her soft brown eyes gleaming with sincerity. “We just want you to be happy.”

“Thanks guys.” Rey pursed her lips together. “I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

“You sure?” Rose asked as Rey got off of the couch, Finn put his arm around Rose and moved closer towards her.

“Yeah, I have an early lecture tomorrow.” Rey murmured a goodnight to the both of them as she walked down the hall to her bedroom.

Rey never had her own bedroom before, well maybe she did when she was young and her parents were still around but after they died and she got shucked around the foster system she was usually bunking with some other kids in the system, her bedrooms were always cramped and were half full of other kids and half storage. Rey used to keep the small amount of things she collected over the course of her various foster homes in a shoebox under her bed, when she had one.

Rey opened the door to her bedroom as she bitterly recalled Unkar Plutt taking her bed and giving it to another one of his child laborers because she had failed completely strip a car when she had spotted cops coming her way. The first thing Rey had done when she moved into the room was painting it a sandy colour; it reminded her of the sands that surrounded Jakku, and her parents. She still remembered Finn raising his eyebrows as she picked up the paint sample from the Lowes they went to.

“Any color you can want in your room and you go with a yellow beige monster?” Finn questioned completely bewildered.

Rey had tried her best to make her small bedroom feel like a home to her, Rose loved taking spare parts that Rey had discarded as “useless” and turning them into works of art. Her walls and her light fixture were covered in her art, Rey’s favorite was a opposite her bed, it was made out of differently colored and bent pieces of metal to look like a flat portrait of a rose. Along with a new coat of paint, Rey got a twin bed to conserve space and gotten a big desk for her to work on any take home projects. The said desk was covered in at least three different motherboards for a new computer she was trying to have made in time for Finn’s next birthday and their toaster that had a bad habit of keeping the toasted bread for itself. Rey closed her door and walked over to her dresser. It was from Ikea and full of clothes Rey and Rose had found thrift shopping, a habit that has unfortunately gotten more expensive since hipsters had sprung up, on top of the dresser there was a blurry photo of Rey and her parents while they lived in Jakku, the three of them were on a camel, Rey in her mothers lap with her mum waving Rey’s arms at the camera.

Rey got ready for bed, pulling on her gym shorts that were mostly used for sleeping rather than working out and a large t-shirt of the Evil Dead remake. Rey climbed into her bed and snuggled deeply under her weighted comforter and fuzzy blanket. The weighted blanket had been a treat for herself when she had passed her exams with flying colors last semester, she had seen an ad for it on Facebook and couldn’t resist something that apparently would reduce her stress, help her sleep and feel like a hug all at the same time. Rey reached next to her and pulled out her laptop from underneath the covers, sure it was impractical of her to keep her computer in bed with her since the fans wouldn’t be able to vent properly but how else was she supposed to binge watch trashy tv?

Rey opened her laptop and opened a new tab, staring at the blinking curser. Rey chewed on her lip as the name of the dance studio popped into her head. Although it wasn’t really the name of the dance studio that came into her mind but the face of the man she saw. What was he thinking about? Rey wondered, what kind of pain has he gone through in order to articulate the pain that Rey could barely even talk about. Rey typed in the name of the dance studio, a name like “Maz Kanata” isn’t hard to forget. She was immediately bombarded with over fifty archived news articles about the studio and its owner.

“Takodanian Ballerina Puts Away Her Ballet Slippers and Picks Up Ballroom Dance!”

“Former Takodanian Prima Ballerina and Ballroom Dance Champion Opens Prestigious Dance Studio!”

“Maz Kanata’s Protégé Sweeps Away The Competition At BlackPool! Exclusive Interview With Leia Organa!”

“Leia Organa, Reigning Blackpool Winner, Marries Nascar Driver Han Solo, Reception At Maz Kanata’s Dance Studio!”

“Maz Kanata’s Legacy Fading? Protégé Leia Organa-Solo Retires Her Dancing Shoes For A Career In Politics!”

Rey browsed though the oldest articles first, learning the history of the dance studio and the old woman who owned it before coming across an article that was dated less than six months ago. Rey’s cursor hovered over the title of the article.

“Disgraced At BlackPool, Kylo Ren Leaves The Competition Scene and Starts Teaching!”

Rey took a deep breath and clicked on the link and was completely taken aback by the image that took up most of the webpage. It was definitely the man she had seen in the window, his face was completely neutral but not expressionless. His dark eyes were focused on the woman in front of him, who completely towered him in heels. His hair looked like a very dark brown and reached his jaw, the waves seemed to absorb any of the warm lights of the ballroom hitting the couple. He was dressed in a black suit with coat tails that Rey had seen before in older movies, she didn’t really know what the kind of suit was called. Rey had no way of describing the woman he was dancing with, the closest she could come too was an Amazon, she was extremely tall, a platinum blonde and seemed to give off this air of grace even through a photograph, while Kylo seemed to absorb the light around him like a void she seemed to reflect it off of her. Rey looked at the picture credit titled “Kylo Ren and former partner Phasma Parnassos, BlackPool 2017”.

Rey stared at the photo for a few more seconds before shaking her head and closing the tab and her computer. What was she doing? Stalking a complete stranger just because she thought he was looking at her? Rey turned over and shoved her face into her pillow, she hadn’t gone to these kinds of lengths over a boy since she was in secondary school and she had followed a boy she liked through two neighborhoods. Rey groaned into her pillow as she remembered what it felt like when Kylo Ren seemed to look at her. It was like his gaze had filled this hole in her soul that she never noticed, she hated to admit it but Finn and Rose were right. Something was missing in her life.

* * *

 

The next day Rey was almost falling asleep in her seven in the morning three hour lecture. According to her professor it was apparently the only time she could get the lecture hall, but in Rey’s professional opinion she definitely thought that her psych teacher was conducting some kind of sleep deprivation experiment. Rey had loitered around campus for nearly two hours for her next class to start and her next few classes went by quickly, and afterwards met up with her study group where they discussed their latest projects and the lessons in Professor Dameron’s class. By the time she got out of campus it was already past sundown and her stomach grumbled since she missed her late lunch due to an extremely long line at the deli.

Rey thought about what takeaway to get as she climbed the steps to get to the L platform, she was happy she didn’t have to work today but grimly thought of her five-hour shift scheduled for the next day. Rey sat down on one of the wooden benches on the platform; she wished she could find another mechanic in the city that was looking for work or maybe she could try to find a paid internship at one of the tech companies in Coruscant. However finding a paid internship was like finding a spring in the Jakku desert. And as far as she’s searched no other place was hiring mechanics, she couldn’t go for any big businesses lest they find out her less than savory connections to the black market.

Rey hated that no matter how hard she tried she could never get the stench of Unkar Plutt off of her. She bit the inside of her cheek as she pulled her headphones out of her pocket, trying to untangle them before the L approached. Sticking her earbuds in her ears she put her playlist on shuffle and smiled when the first song that play was “Waltz No.2”, she distantly remembered watching her parents dancing to it in their kitchen once, Rey shook the memory out of her head as she stood up and walked closer to the platform just as the train slowed to a stop. Rey sat down on one of the seats and absentmindedly put her hands on the edge of the empty seat in front of her and began tapping out the beats of the song.

Rose would be working late on the docks tonight which meant Finn would probably bring her some food for her thirty minute break, hopefully that meant Finn had left some for Rey to eat. If not, she could always order pizza or something. Rey ran her fingers through her hair before undoing the buns she had her hair in all day, the three buns was a hairstyle left over from her mother. Rey used to think her mother wore it the same way but as her memory fades, it became harder to tell if that was true or something her mind made up to comfort her. Rey shook her hair as she undid the last of the buns and shoved them into her green backpack beside her.

Rey turned and stared out the window again as the classical music continued playing. She loved watching everything moving past her on the L, it reminded her of the tube in London, sometimes back then she would just ride it for hours trying to forget what was waiting for her when she came home. She groaned as she noticed that a few raindrops were starting to fall and run against the windows of the train, she hadn’t brought an umbrella. She didn’t mind the at all rain but the parts of tech she had in her bag minded very much.

“Bloody hell.” Rey muttered as she looked up to see the darken clouds only to be caught off-guard by the solemn gaze of the man she had researched last night. Kylo Ren.

Rey gulped as he still wore the same expression as the night before, still staring at the same spot, which was at least in her general area. Rey’s pulse seemed to quicken, as her face seemed to get redder the longer she stared at him. Behind him she saw two people spin past, was he in the middle of a class? She wondered. His eyes seemed to be sadder this time, as opposed to completely lacking any emotion like they were yesterday. She heard the last chimes of the doors and without thinking she swung her backpack off her shoulder and bolted off of the L just before the doors closed. She quickly went down the stairs of the platform, as if moving on instinct before her brain took over when she started crossing the street to get to the building.

What the hell was she doing? Going up to a complete stranger for no reason? Was she going mad? What was she even going to say to him? She thought as she looked up at the cheesy lights spelling out the studios name. Rey hadn’t even realized that she was opening the door to building before she was inside and struck with fear and anxiety.

“What am I doing?” She whispered harshly to herself “What am I going to say to him? ‘Hi, I saw your face in a window have any time to chat?’ so stupid!”

Rey turned to walk out but was stopped by two laughing girls coming into the foyer of the building, Rey’s eyes froze up with fear as she turned back around and started going up the stairs, much to the chagrin of her inner thoughts.

“Oh hi!” One of the girls said, Rey hoped that she wasn’t talking to her and slowly stopped walking up the stairs and turned around, the girl with her hair in two buns smiled at her, confirming that she was trying to talk to Rey.

“Hi.” Rey said slowly

“You’re taking Maz’s class?” The girl with dark short hair asked as she continued to climb the stairs, the blonde girl was walking up behind Rey forcing Rey to go up the stairs as well.

“Uh-“

“I’ve heard she’s really good, better than those louts at First Order anyway. Their classes cost $200 per. Per!” The blonde girl chatted as Rey threw one last longing look at the door before going up the second staircase.

“Wow that’s a lot of money for dancing classes.” Rey’s eyes widened, Rey couldn't remember that last time she spent that much money on anything beside her share of the rent

“Exactly!” The ebony haired girl replied, “They just think that because they have more famous dancers that took their classes they can charge whatever they want but their classes are shit.”

“Speaking from personal experience?” Rey raised an eyebrow ash her hand glided on the wooden banister of the stairs

“Let’s just say Maz’s is not the first place we came to.” The blonde girl sighed

Rey smiled as she raised her gaze to the door that the dark haired girl had stopped in front of.

“And here we are.” She turned back and smiled at Rey and the other girl, Rey returned it before she opened the door and the sound of classical music drifted out into the hallway. The blonde haired girl stepped in front of Rey as her friend entered the room, the girl held the door open for her. Rey hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the staircase, she could still go down the stairs and catch the next L and go home. But what was waiting for her back there?

“You coming?” Rey snapped her head back at the door; the blonde was still holding the door open for her.

“Yeah I am.” Rey walked through the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a comment telling me what you thought of it! Kudos are appreciated as well! I promise there is going to be more Kylo in the next chapter! If you want you can follow me on tumblr @rosered282, send me asks and stuff about the story!


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